The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-01-07
The superstitions of soldiers.

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der was any more superstitious than
the federal ! neither admit nor deny,
but / think the same superstit ions in
regard to battles probably prevailed
to equal extent on both sides. We
may laugh at them now, but we
once accepted and pinned our faith in
them.
The first instance to come under
my observation was at Gaines's Mills.
/ was then serving with an Alabama
regiment, and on the morning of the
day on which we were making our COT
fee at the early camp fire / heard a
sort of groan from a comrade, and as
| turned to look at him / noticed that
he was staring into his coffee pot with
something like terror, while his face
was deathly pale.
"What is it?" / asked.
~ shall bekilled to-day, "hegroaned
out.
'Fudgel We don't know that even
a single musket will be fired"
81 dreamed last night" he whisper
ed, "that l looked down upon a sheet
of water whose surface was covered
with bubbles, and amidst them / saw
my own dead face. / shall be shot be-
fore night"
/ ridiculed the idea and brought up
others to assist me, but the only re-
ply to our raillery was a sad shake of
the head. He was q believer in
dreams, and he certainly felt that his
last day had come. In place of eat
ing his breakfast he scrubbed off O
letter to his mother and entrusted it
to a comrade. In n little time we got
the orders to march, and before noon
my regiment was thrown forward TO
uncover a portion of the federal line.
The first missile. sent at us was a
solid shot from a field piece, and it
struck the young soldier in the chest
and cut him fairly in two without in
Juring another man. Not another
man was even wounded for the next
ten minutes.
The night before Burnside crossed
at Fredericksburg asecond lieutenant
in a Virginia regiment received, with
hundreds of Others, some mail from
the regimental bag. Icarried the pack
of twenty or thirty letters over to the
officers quarters and handed it to
this lieutenant. The top letter was
for him, and on one end of the envel-
ope was a red stain. 1t looked like
blood, but was probably ink. He no
Don saw it than he became greatly
affected, and said:
81 shall be the first officer out OF
the regiment killed tomorrow"
heard q dozen officers ridiculing
him, but he became silent and serious,
and finally walked away by himself.
We were down on the right, where
the first federal attack was made.
Our regiment was using q long and
deep land furrCw as q rifle pit, and
the advancing line of blue had just
come within range, when q bullet
struck the lieutenant in the head and
killed him instantly. It came from
the front and was probably from some
sharpshooter, but it was afterward
agreed that the officer who was killed
vas perhaps the least exposed of any.
There was a superstition in my regi-
ment that any one who went into bat
tie with q foot of a rabbit tad around
his neck was safe. This was all right,
and rabbits feet we're at high premi-
UNI for two or three weeks. My bri-
gade was then pushed ahead on a re-
connoissance, loumped up against the
Yanks, and we not only got severely
thrashed, but we lost a good many
men. Out Of the seventy men in my
company / presume that thirty had
the talisman. 1t so happened that the
three killed belonged to this lucky
set, and next day rabbits feet took q
decided fall in price.
| was for a time q brigadier's order
ly. His superstition was that he
would be safe from bullets as long as
he rode q chestnut horse. In the first
battle into which / followed him his
chestnut was shot, and, Of course, /
"hustled" to bring him up another.
Nine was q coal black, and the only
one which | could get for him was a
roam. He didn't seem to notice the
difference until the action was over,
and then / got q terrible rating. In
the second battle he had a chestnut,
and even before our line came under
fire a bullet crippled the horse and
another hit my superstitious gem
eral in the thigh and left him to limp
through life on a short leg.
personally knew other officers who felt
safe on roans, bays, blacks and even
whites, but they sooner or later dis
covered that they had pinned their
to a rule which had exceptions.
remember that just before Grant at
tackled Lee in the Wilderness, and
while | was at brigade headquarters.
a hen, of which there was q large flock
in the yard, scratched up a steel but
ton. A sergeant of cavalry at once
and secured it, and when
| asked what use he could put it to he